What they are talking about is the Motonara. Different from Kenji's Neo-fake skillet method. I've tried that, and while it did work, I didn't like it. I will give this method a shot. Thanks for posting.

buceriasdon

Quote from first article: Dunn cooks regular pizza dough on both sides in a cast iron skillet in a small amount of hot olive oil, which causes the dough to bubble up. Since when does a small amount of olive oil equal deep frying? The first article does not describe deep frying.Donp.s. Brian, I agree with you stating the crust is deep fried, I don't quite get the discrepancies between the first article and the Serious Eats article.

I'm going to give this a try today or tomorrow. The first step will be to "fry" a Lehmann dough on my 14-inch Lodge cast iron pizza pan that I'll preheat to about 360 degrees (below the 410 degree smoke point of olive oil).

Any thoughts as to the amount of oil I should use? Should I add additional oil when I flip it? I'm also thinking about using corn oil or soybean instead because they tolerate higher temperatures.

Try a thin rolled cut dough round first. The thinner the better. Enough oil to float it (@350). Press it down as it cooks, going around in a circular press pattern. By the time you get back to where you started, the dough should be finished and ready to cool (on a rack) and top.

Different kinds of oils will give you a different flavor profile - try olive, canola, peanut, see what you like best.

Looking forward to pics - should be a great experiment. Don't worry about following the seriouseats recipe. I don't think anyone really expects that to give great results.

Try a thin rolled cut dough round first. The thinner the better. Enough oil to float it (@350). Press it down as it cooks, going around in a circular press pattern. By the time you get back to where you started, the dough should be finished and ready to cool (on a rack) and top.

Different kinds of oils will give you a different flavor profile - try olive, canola, peanut, see what you like best.

Looking forward to pics - should be a great experiment. Don't worry about following the seriouseats recipe. I don't think anyone really expects that to give great results.

I was reading this thread and I had the same question. How is Kenji's method different?

Is it any surprise that there is a rift between pizzamaking and Serious Eats?

I was reading this thread and I had the same question. How is Kenji's method different?

Is it any surprise that there is a rift between pizzamaking and Serious Eats?

The original post in this thread is about a montanara pizza. A montanara is a raw neopolitan skin, docked with the pizzaiolo fingertips, and lightly [deep] fried. The fried skin is topped like a Margherita and then placed on a pan and finished in a 900F WFO.

I believe the confusion stemmed from the original post which says "Dunn cooks regular pizza dough on both sides in a cast iron skillet in a small amount of hot olive oil." Since most Neapolitan-type pizzerias don't have deep fryers, it's not surprising he has to use a skillet instead, and compared to a deep fryer, a 1/2 inch or an inch of oil is a "small amount." The fact that both methods employ a pan set the stage for the confusion.

Having tried a montanara at Forcella, I disagree with the idea suggested above of rolling the dough thin. I believe it should be stretched by hand as if one were making a regular Neapolitan pie. Don’t forget to dock it with your fingertips or the point of a knife so it doesn’t blow up like a balloon when fried.

With respect to the idea that there is a “rift between pizzamaking and Serious Eats,” I would disagree. As you would expect in any situation involving a large number of passionate people, there are going to be some conflicting personalities. Notwithstanding, there are plenty of folks who are active, well respected, and have great relationships at both forums.

Logged

"We make great pizza, with sourdough when we can, commercial yeast when we must, but always great pizza."Craig's Neapolitan Garage

I gave this a go, though maybe not using anyone's exact instructions. I heated by 14" cast iron pizza plate to about 350 degrees, added 2-3 tablespoons of canola oil and put a Lehmann emergency dough down for about 3 minutes per side. I forgot to dock it, though it was rolled out. I then dressed the pizza and baked it for about 3 minutes on 1/2" steel in my oven at 500 degrees. The result was OK. The crust was crisp, but it seemed like a lot of work and cleanup for what I got at the end of the night. I think that if I do it again I'll make a smaller pizza that would fit in my 10" cast iron griddle so that I could make it on the stove top.

The first step was done with the cast iron on top of my BBQ. For me, there was a lot of oil in the pan. How much one needs before you can qualify it "frying" is up to interpretation. At least to my thinking, that's "flash frying" in a cast iron pan. That's different than dropping something into a deep fryer like you would with doughnuts. The dough had picked up plenty of oil at the first stage.